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William Petersen in To Live and Die in L.A. (1985)

Goofs

To Live and Die in L.A.

Edit

Continuity

As Cody walks to the window to have his visit with Masters, his bottle of Pepto-Bismol is already sitting at the window.
The opening scene says December 20 at 1410 hours (2:10 p.m.), which is about two hours before sunset of the shortest day of the year, yet the shadows and the sun's position makes it more like noon in the summer.
At conclusion of the chase, a dark brown van with a multicolor horizontal stripe is part of the gridlock, but as agents drive away, the van is seen approaching on opposite lanes.
The morning after Chance and Ruth have sex, they are talking while he is sitting on the toilet and she is sitting on the bed, pulling on stockings. However, in the next scene, as he prepares to leave, she is wearing blue jeans and is clearly barefoot.

Factual errors

When Chance visits Cody in prison, Cody has his own bottle of Pepto-Bismol. A prisoner would not get to walk around with a glass bottle in a federal lock up. He would most likely been given a small dose cup to drink his medication from.
When Jimmy Hart is spying on the counterfeiting plant, his binoculars are mis-aligned, as the horizontal figure 8 shows. With the two lenses so far off, there would be two distinct images seen.
When Masters is visiting Cody in jail, they are talking on phones on either side of what is presumably a clear soundproof wall. Yet after hanging up the phones, Cody says "don't forget about me" to Masters, and Masters answers him as if he heard what he said through the wall.
According to the title cards, the film begins in mid-December and ends in late-January. However, there is no mention of Christmas or New Year's Day, and none of the sets has decorations of any kind for either holiday.

Incorrectly regarded as goofs

When Rick Masters demands his money back from Jeff for the botched hit on Cody in jail, Jeff says, "I owe you one Cody". Although some viewers think that the line should read, "I owe you one, Rick", Jeff's reference to Cody is not an error; Jeff merely is saying that he owes Rick "one Cody"; i.e., one dead Cody.

Revealing mistakes

Whenever frontal camera angles are used to film revolvers being pointed, it is clear that their cylinders are empty.
When Chance goes the wrong direction on the freeway in the big car chase scene, he's actually driving on the correct side and the rest of traffic is driving on the left side of the road.
During the first meeting at the gym, during locker-room and sauna scenes, Rick Masters does not have any noticeable bruises after a fierce fight with Jeff. At the same time, besides the bruised face, Chance does not have any bruises after being repetitively kicked by Cody.
In the opening sequence with the motorcade, traffic is shown going in the opposite direction on the same street and pedestrians are standing outside the hotel a few feet away from the motorcade's arrival. The US Secret Service and local law enforcement completely shut down motorcade routes for events such as the one depicted, and pedestrians would not be allowed to be so close to the motorcade. This indicates the film's budget was insufficient to close down the street and the hotel location.

Crew or equipment visible

In the original 1985 theater release, there was a large shadow of the crew and equipment visible on the ground as John Vukovich approaches the warehouse with the Chinese character.
When the truck jackknifes during the chase, a tow truck in the left of the frame can be seen pulling the back of the trailer.
During the base-jumping scene, the stunt man doubling for Chance can be seen, quite obviously, in a minor shot that reveals his face and hair from a distance, showing someone who doesn't look like William Petersen.

Plot holes

Jim Hart arrives at Lancaster early morning to stake-out Rick Masters' warehouse. As he scans the area through binoculars, he is visibly affected by the bitter cold. Once Jim jumps over the fence, Rick Masters is seen hiding inside the empty trailer, suggesting that Rick must have anticipated Jim Hart's arrival and spent considerable time waiting in ambush, possibly through an entire night in bitter cold.

Character error

Ruth tells Chance that Lin is coming in on Amtrak train number 11, which is the correct train number for the train coming from San Francisco (the Coast Starlight). When Lin arrives at L.A. Union Station and is paged, he is paged as arriving on Amtrak train number 708.

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William Petersen in To Live and Die in L.A. (1985)
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